


fazing through keys

by Imgoingtodrownmyselfinthelake



Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: How Do I Tag, Piano, just some beans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:15:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29546400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imgoingtodrownmyselfinthelake/pseuds/Imgoingtodrownmyselfinthelake
Summary: Kitty remembers being alive and one of her favorite pass times
Relationships: The Captain & Kitty (Ghosts TV 2019)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	fazing through keys

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this is just some random scene my brain played out for me which was funky as a little scene. I posted it on tumblr and someone said it would be cool as a fic so guess I am here writing it up properly at 1 am. Lord I need some sleep. I hope this is enjoyable.  
> Warning : I don't know how to spell fazing/phasing. It says both are correct and I don't know which is which so the spelling may jump from one to another. Apologies.

Kitty took 2 steps back and turned on her heel to run through the door. Like expected she phased right through and continued along the hall, sniffing loudly. It wasn't likely that the others would notice, normally Pat or Mary would see first but at the moment Pat was desperately trying to hold Julian away from a furious Thomas who was trying to wriggle out of Robbins grasp and Mary was to busy watching the chaos unfold, seemingly amused. They were both too distracted to see her leave. As she ran along the halls of Button house she rubbed at her eyes, wiping away the moisture which quickly disintegrated away, fading off into the surrounding area and separating slowly. She had always hated it when the others argued, it reminded her of all the times her sister would yell at her and though the other ghosts never actually yelled at her it always hurt. When she was alive having a little cry alone always helped but now that she was dead, the disappearing act the tears seemed to play every time she cried made the comfort they supplied significantly smaller. She wasn't sure why the others were arguing, something to do with Lord Byron she remembered but the yelling had soon clouded over into meaningless nonsense. Alison was out too, just with her friends, nothing important she had said, but why did she have to leave the one day everything finally kicked off. Maybe that was why they chose today to kick off, no Alison to stop them from getting it out of their systems. Sooner or later someone was going to get punched and it was too much for one day.

Soon enough she drew to a halt and her slight run turned to a slow pace wandering through the halls. Till she reached downstairs living room. Her paces used to echo slightly when she had lived there all those years ago, beautifully decorated tall walls, cold when matched with the oak floors. Even the fire left burning in the winter evenings couldn't fill the expansive rooms. Couldn't lighten the smiles plastered onto the family portraits hung carefully around the room, each one captured in a frame of such elegant detail littered with golden flowers. It never really felt particularly homely though and often found herself adventuring in the gardens as a small escape. Most of her time inside though was in here. Mainly due to the old piano.

It wasn't the same piano still here obviously, it would have likely rotted now like many of the old trunks in the loft, but this one was incredibly similar. The same kind of wood, or at least the same color, and the same style. She had seen smaller more compact ones before and the strange string-less ones she had seen at the wedding and always thought the extended rounded design was nicer. A lot more elegant. Kitty wandered over, swinging her arms gently and sniffing away the last of the tears looking down at the one thing certainly the same. The beautiful keys. Ivory white paralleled by the ebony black, repeating over and over again, all perfectly identical, bar the last couple of notes in the highest octave which had a few tea stains from hastily placed mugs and one spilt coffee. The world around her seemed to echo the endless silence before another slight raised voice of "I will destroy you sir!" Her head spun round, looking to where she had come in with her eyes wide and considering whether it was time to return and try and calm them down. Surely Pat could handle that though. He normally was very good at keeping things under control as long as he was feeling all right and he seemed more chipper then usual today so it must be okay.

Slowly, she turned back to look at the piano. She sat down at the stool, thankful that she didn't phase through as some stools were a bit of a grey area in terms of the ability to sit on them but clearly this was fine. She brushed her skirt forwards as to not crumple it and sat facing the piano, hands resting daintily on her lap. She prodded forwards at a key and with no surprise her finger phased right through it. She sighed slightly, craning her ear for any slight ghost of a sound, a ringing melody echoing back from the past but there was no note. From what her mother had taught her it was a C note, middle C as they say, possibly the note that first comes to a persons mind for no apparent reason. She hummed various off tuned notes before settling on one and pressing her finger at the key again and humming along. It wasn't quite the same but it brought back the slight familiarity of it. She raised both hands to hover above the keys checking behind her to make sure no one else had snuck out after her.

First a D on Left. A short rising sequence followed by a lower one, so on repeating as the bass. After 4 bars an F with right for 2 beats with the same pattern on her left hand as before whilst the minim pattern descended in scale, rising slightly at the end. The beginning was slow as she got to grips with the tune, having to remind herself as the way it went before giving up entirely on her humming and just playing it based on what felt right by the ghostly muscles in her hands. She was certain the notes were wrong in places, maybe she had accidently gone up a note for one of the patterns and she had definitely missed a sharp even before the end of the first 8 bars but her hands flowed steadily on, not really watching out for what notes were played just flowing along.

The room was lighter than before and the piano was host to floral carvings at its feet, the wood slightly more shiny then before and the whole object slightly to the right. Portraits with shining frames watched over her as her she pushed down each key, in turn twanging each string for the notes to ring out loudly. Always at concert pitch this piano was. Her smile was faint as she played along the chord progression, swaying slightly in time with her hands and the steady music that flew out of the piano. A few soft footsteps slowed the music as a smartly dressed man wandered in, pushing a small pair of spectacles up his nose. He rotated his hand as a 'keep going' sort of gesture and used the other to push his wig slightly more in place. Soon she focused back onto the melody, speeding it back to the original tempo and only watching him approach in her peripheral vision. The slight creases by his eyes pulled as he smiled, perching down on the edge of the stool, doing his best to stay as far off it as possible to give her enough room to play properly. She smiled widely and pushed down harder upon reaching the recognizable melody, glancing occasionally to the side at her father who sat silently watching her dainty hands dance across the keys like ballerinas. The tune was so gentle and soft but played with such a determined passion that she barely even looked down at the keys. Just stared down at her hands to give her the concentration she needed but knowing deep down that she needn't watch which note was pressed. Each note had been played so often and in such a fond way they were engraved into her memory, a natural reflex you could say to follow one note progression by another and another in a continuous loop as the melody sung high up in the clean white keys. Possibly another stopped by the door to watch in with jealous eyes or maybe it was the constantly glowering portraits that watched her every move but nothing seemed to happen outside of the moment, even her company seemed to fade away and all that was left was her hands, moving unthinkingly from note to note. Kitty smiled as the song grew near it's close and her father rubbed slightly at the edge of his eye, nocking the glasses down slightly.

The final note seemed to echo around her mind as the small memory from within her played the melody along with her movements. Her fingers phased straight through the final chord like they had with all the others and though the room was deathly silent her ears could still hear the gentle ringing from so long ago. Just before she could take her hands away the silence was broken by a painful crunch behind her. She jumped slightly and pulled her hands up to her chest, turning to see a half seated captain, hovering slightly awkwardly just above the seat after his crunchy knees showed to be his weakness yet again.

"Don't stop on my account," He said hurriedly standing straight again and fiddling with his swagger stick. "I didn't mean to interrupt you." She stared for a minute before smiling and shaking her head.

"Oh don't worry. I was finished now anyway." He gave an unsure sort of hum before taking a few cautious steps closer.

"What were you playing?"

"Pachelbel canon in D. Have you heard of it? I suspect it is a bit old now," 

"Not at all!" He drew closer and perched on a small chair just next to the piano stool, again with a slight crack of his old joints. "Quite a popular piece for pianists in my day, I think I might have heard Alison play it once or twice too. One of those songs that is hard to live your life without hearing once," She nodded and gave him a big smile. "My mother used to play it all the time."

"Mine too. It was her favorite tune. She taught me to play."

"Ahh well that's our difference Katherine. You could be taught. I was rather hopeless at these things to say the least." The captain chuckled slightly and glanced down at his hands, flexing them out and staring slightly transfixed. "Never quite got the hang of it even after her trying to teach me my entire life. Didn't have much luck with my sister either. Possibly because she just hated the piano though. Mother was awfully good though,"

"As was mine." Kitty smiled and looked back at the keys ahead. "She was always playing, either for herself or when teaching one of us. Father used to love it especially. I made sure to learn and practice more after she passed, for him."

"If you don't mind me asking what took her?"

"Smallpox,"

"Ahh." The captain grimaced and looked down or a second. "Blitz." The pair refused eye contact, both staring at the piano and thinking back to their homes. The captain cleared his throat rather loudly. "Anyway I came to check you were alright. The others are still going at one another but Mary was concerned so we've been looking about for you,"

"That's very kind but I think I am alright now, just needed some time alone to calm down." She smiled and looked back at the captain who nodded in time with another one of his odd murmuring noises.

"I do wish they'd take a leaf out of your book!" He moved his head to the side and gestured in the general direction of where they had been before where the faint yelling could still be heard somehow. Kitty giggled a little, covering her mouth slightly and allowing her shoulders to shake just a little. The silence continued, not quite as thick as before, now a calm and welcoming air even in this cold room. She couldn't feel temperature for obvious reasons but inside a warm familiar smile blossomed from within. "Do you er..." The captain cleared his throat awkwardly and bounced his heels against the floor. "Do you know any other tunes? Would you play me something?" He gave little quotation marks with his hands when saying 'play' and smiled awkwardly but still expectantly. 

"Of course!" It had been such a long time and Kitty wasn't even sure if she remembered the exact notes, but clearly it didn't quite matter. As long as she remembered the melody well enough to hum along. "I think i remember a few. Fur Elise? Ave Maria?"

"Do you know Nocturn? Number 2 I think? Chopin. Or is that a bit after your time?"

"I don't think I know it so I'd assume so," she giggled again and the captain shrugged, moving himself slightly from his chair to the very edge of the wide piano stool.

"Whatever you know then," The captain scratched his moustache slightly and smiled encouragingly. Kitty turned away and placed her hands into playing position, once again allowing her fingers to phase through the keys, almost hitting the correct notes every time and humming along gently, praying she was in time with her muscle memory as the song flowed through her mind and into his ears.

**Author's Note:**

> The Captain is Kitty's adoptive dad and you can't change my mind.


End file.
